


of sickydudes and blanket forts

by straythoughts (HiraethSatisfied)



Series: Yours + Mine = Ours [4]
Category: Stray Kids (Band)
Genre: Baking, Family, Fluff, Gen, Kid Fic, M/M, Pillow & Blanket Forts, Single Parent Bang Chan, Single Parents, Unresolved Romantic Tension, first playdate!, single parent lee minho
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-14
Updated: 2021-02-14
Packaged: 2021-03-14 18:34:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,058
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29423121
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HiraethSatisfied/pseuds/straythoughts
Summary: Minho and his kids come over to Chan's house for their very first collective playdate.
Relationships: Bang Chan/Lee Minho | Lee Know
Series: Yours + Mine = Ours [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2119446
Comments: 18
Kudos: 152





	of sickydudes and blanket forts

**Author's Note:**

> -insert Big Bird kicking down the door gif-
> 
> Guess who's doing another collab series? An enormous thank you to Ryn for letting me barge in, and for all her wonderful ideas and screaming. This one will also most likely be posted out of order at first. 
> 
> Oh, and happy Valentine's day if you celebrate. Enjoy.~

Now that Chan knows what Minho can be like without the filter of cautiousness he has around the kids, he respects Minho for that care and caution even more, and finds himself all the more intrigued by the man. The more he learns about him, and the more he comes to look forward to Minho’s texts and occasionally snarky comments, the more Minho is a challenge or puzzle he wants to tease out, bit by bit.

He’s anticipating Minho and his kids’ arrival for the kids’ first collective playdate so much that he keeps looking out the window to the front yard instead of at his laptop.

“Dad,” Hyunjin complains, drawing out the syllable. He and his brothers are playing Operation on the floor of the living room as Chan sits on the couch. “When are they coming?” 

Chan lifts his phone from where he’d purposely put it face down, and unlocks it to find that he hadn’t exited out of his message thread with Minho, the last  _ See you soon! _ he’d sent staring back at him. Minho’s last text is from about twenty minutes ago, so Chan assumes he’s almost here.

“Very soon,” he tells Hyunjin reassuringly, but it’s Felix who jumps up and runs over to the couch. He clambers onto the seat and almost slips but keeps going, putting his elbows up on the windowsill so he can peek over them and out into their front yard. 

“They’re here!” he yells, and suddenly the kids are all a mess, stampeding toward the front door. 

Hyunjin gets there first and yanks it open, tumbling out onto the front walk with the other two in tow, and Chan barely has time to wonder how Felix had known the car was Minho’s as he calls for them to be careful. They don’t really hear him anyway, getting to the car as Minho rounds the hood to open the door. 

“Hi, Mr. Minho!” Felix is saying, bouncing on the balls of his feet and smiling brightly up at the other man. 

Minho blinks, as if he hadn’t been expecting the kids to greet him, but he smiles down at Felix, and Chan is also a little taken off-guard, by how warm and soft it is. “Hi, Felix,” he says, ruffling Felix’s hair a little before he opens the car door.

“What about me?” Hyunjin asks, tugging on Minho’s sleeve as he frees Jeongin, then Jisung from their carseats.

“You want headpats too?” Minho asks, amused. Chan watches the little curve of his smile instead of Jeongin and Jisung clambering out of the car for a moment, Jisung already laughing and grabbing onto Felix and Seungmin’s hands. 

Hyunjin nods, peeking around the door to make sure Changbin is getting out of the car by himself before grabbing Minho’s hand for himself and putting it on top of his hair. Chan starts to remind Hyunjin not to bother him, but Minho laughs and obligingly pets his hair as Chan feels a tug on his own sleeve. 

“Lix says we’re gonna build a blanket fort!” Jisung says excitedly, craning his neck to look up at Chan with Felix nodding rapidly next to him. “Can we?” 

Chan can’t help but smile at him. “Of course we can.” He knows that he’ll probably have to be the one to clean it up, but well, it’s worth it when about half the kids cheer and run toward the still-open front door, prompting the rest to follow. 

Minho looks to Chan, catching his eye. “Shall we?” 

“We shall,” Chan laughs, and waits for Minho to shut the car door before they head inside. He wants to say more in the moment or two they have alone, but he’d rather be responsible and make sure the kids don’t set something on fire instead. Minho will understand.

Felix is already tugging Jisung and Jeongin toward the living room, Hyunjin helping push them along. They’re climbing over the furniture, trying to gauge where best to set up their blanket fort, and Chan cautions them to be careful and not move any furniture on their own. 

“Will we have snacks in the blanket fort?” Jeongin asks as Minho lifts him onto the couch since he’d been struggling trying to copy the older kids. 

“Ooh!” Felix hops off the couch to stand next to Changbin. “We can bake! Please, Dad? Please?” 

Chan is a weak, weak man in the face of Felix’s pleading eyes and freckled face. “You have to promise me that you’ll help clean up if it gets messy,” he finally relents, and Felix crosses his heart solemnly. 

“But I wanna build the fort first!” Hyunjin pouts. 

Chan looks toward Minho, and through their sixth Dad senses, come to a silent agreement. “Okay, everyone who wants to bake cookies with me and Felix, raise your hand.” 

Unsurprisingly, Seungmin raises his hand, likely because he knows Chan will play music for them, but Jeongin also raises his hand from the couch next to Minho, bouncing a little. Chan looks to Minho first to make sure, and Minho nods. 

“Make sure you listen to everything Chan says, okay?” he tells Jeongin, and Jeongin nods before sliding to the ground and running over to Chan. Chan smiles as Jeongin’s tiny fingers wrap around his index and middle fingers, inexplicably happy that Minho is trusting him with his youngest.

“Any allergies?” Chan asks, and Minho shakes his head. “Alright, well there’s extra blankets and pillows in the hall closet, so help yourself. You can use anything that’s not breakable, and call if you need help moving something.” 

Minho snorts and makes a shooing motion with his hands. “We’ll be fine, don’t worry so much.” He turns to Changbin, Hyunjin, and Jisung. “We’ll make the best blanket fort ever, right?”

The three of them cheer and Hyunjin starts excitedly talking about his grand plans for the fort, the other two listening with rapt attention. Chan looks down at the three kids around them. 

“Ready?” he asks. “Any idea what kind of cookies you want to make?”

“Sweet!” Jeongin says immediately, and Chan laughs as the child tugs him toward the kitchen. 

“I don’t think that’s a kind of cookie,” Seungmin frowns. “You wanna make sugar cookies?”

Jeongin nods happily, even though Chan is pretty sure he doesn’t understand the difference. “No chocolate chips?” he asks them.

“No, wait!” Felix gasps. “We have to make sickydudes!”

It takes Chan a moment, but he manages to decipher what Felix had been trying to say. “You mean snickerdoodles?”

Felix beams. “Yeah, that’s the one!” He turns to Seungmin. “Remember? We had them at Auntie Jihyo’s house.”

Seungmin’s eyes go wide with realization, and he looks up at Chan. “We can make those? I thought only Auntie Jihyo could.”

“Special cookie? I wanna make them!” Jeongin makes little grabby hands in the air at Felix.

Well, Chan has never made snickerdoodles, but he can certainly ask Jihyo. “I can call and ask her how to make them, okay? She’ll lend us the secret magic recipe.”

All three of the kids’ eyes go wide and round, and they nod silently. Chan tells them to wash their hands in the kitchen sink and wait just a moment as he goes into the living room to get his phone from the couch, and sees that Minho and the other boys are clustered around the hall closet, slowly amassing blankets. He smiles a little and makes sure to grab his laptop as well so that it’s not in the way and brings both devices back to the kitchen. On second thought, he puts on some music for Seungmin, just in case, then turns back to the children.

“Okay,” he tells their expectant faces. “I’m gonna call Auntie Jihyo right now.” He navigates to his contacts and clicks on her name, hoping that she’s free since it’s a weekend. Thankfully, she picks up, and laughs as Chan explains that they want to make her snickerdoodles. 

“You’re stealing my secret recipe?” she teases, on speakerphone so the boys can hear her too.

“No!” Felix protests. “We’re only borrowing it!”

Seungmin nods in agreement even though she can’t see them. “You still make the best ones!” he promises.

“Alright, alright. I’ll send the recipe to your dad, okay?”

Even Jeongin cheers, and Chan gets a text from Jihyo with a detailed recipe, grateful that he has the ingredients she’d listed. After they hang up, he asks, “Who wants to help with the mission of finding ingredients? You gotta brave the wild jungle known as the pantry.”

“Silly Dad,” Seungmin says patiently. “The pantry isn’t scary.”

Thankfully, Felix comes to Chan’s rescue. “But finding the right ingredients is! If we get it wrong, then we could all die!”

Jeongin gasps. “Lixie, you’re not gonna let us die in the jungle, right?”

“Nope,” Felix promises him seriously. “We’re gonna get all the right ingredients so we can’t! I call leading the search party!”

Even Seungmin can’t say no to that, so Chan lists off ingredients for them to find in the cupboards and gets them the stepstool so they can reach, and they’re happily occupied with finding baking soda and cinnamon and whatever else they can carry. Chan helps them with the heavier items like flour and sugar, and narrowly avoids Jeongin crying when he drops an egg, but the mess is soon cleaned up and forgotten. 

Seungmin is happy to line cookie sheets as Chan lets Jeongin mix together sugar and cinnamon, soft over him standing on the stepstool and using both his hands with the wooden spoon. Felix is Chan’s most regular baking partner, so he gets to mix together some of the other ingredients in one of the high chairs at the table next to the fridge. Some of both of their bowls spill onto the tabletop and counter, but well, baking is supposed to be messy, anyway. Chan lets them watch as he uses the hand mixer to beat some of the last ingredients, and lets both Felix and Seungmin tip the dry ingredients in a little at a time until they have a thick dough.

“I wanna eat some!” Jeongin complains, reaching for the bowl.

Thankfully, Chan had bargained for a little extra dough for this exact reason, and figures Minho won’t bury him alive for letting Jeongin have a taste. He reaches over for a regular spoon from the drying rack and dips it into the dough, handing it over the Jeongin.

“Has to be a secret, though,” he whispers. “You can’t tell anyone.”

Jeongin happily agrees and puts the spoon in his mouth. As he takes the mostly empty spoon out again, he squeaks in delight.

“It’s so good! Seungmo, you gotta try!” He tries to shove the spoon toward Seungmin, but Chan gently catches his wrist. 

“I’ll give Seungmin a clean spoon if he wants to try,” he promises, prying the spoon away and depositing it in the sink.

Seungmin and Felix are already reaching for their own spoons. “I do wanna try!” Seungmin says, and Chan chuckles as he lets them each have a little bit of dough.

“We have to save the rest for the cookies,” he reminds them. 

“Not even a little more?” Felix pleads.

“Sorry, but no,” Chan tells him firmly. “Do you know where the plastic gloves are?”

That sufficiently distracts Felix, who nods and runs to one of the drawers at the end of the counter. He pulls out the box of plastic food-handling gloves and Chan directs him to give all of them a pair.

“We gotta roll the dough into balls,” he explains. “It should be about this size, see?” He plucks a bit of dough from the bowl and rolls it around between his palms, then tosses it around in one hand to solidify the ball without it sticking to the gloves.

“The faster we roll the balls, the faster we can eat the cookies!” Felix proclaims, and reaches over to grab some of the dough. 

Chan tries to make sure they’re as even as possible, but it’s hard for Jeongin’s tiny hands especially. Instead of letting him get frustrated, he directs Jeongin to roll the finished balls of dough into the cinnamon and sugar mixture instead, and then lays them out on the baking sheets himself. 

As he slides the trays into the oven, Jeongin asks, “When will they be done?”

Checking his texts for the recipe and setting a timer, Chan answers, “About ten minutes.”

“But that’s so long,” Jeongin whines. 

“I wanna eat them now,” Seungmin agrees.

Smiling, Chan tells them, “We can wash our hands and go help with the blanket fort until the cookies are done. How does that sound?”

Immediately, Felix is running toward the sink and putting his gloves in the trash. “They better have the fairy lights!” he yells.

The string lights would be a good addition. Chan makes a mental note to go get them from their Christmas decorations if Minho hasn’t found them already. But first, he makes sure each of them washes their hands properly before they troop into the living room.

He almost doesn’t recognize it.

There’s a light blanket draped over the back of the couch and over almost everything, going over their arched standing lamp and what Chan thinks is a clothesline, but all of these things are just vague shapes that he can see under the fabric. Changbin is standing on a chair as Minho holds the legs steady, reaching up with intense concentration to pin some of the fabric up to the clothesline to create an entrance. 

“Wow, you’ve been busy,” Chan chuckles. 

Felix shouts in delight and runs over to Minho. “We wanna help!” he tells Minho excitedly, and Minho smiles at him and Jeongin behind him.

“Hyunjin and Jisung are putting blankets and pillows on the floor,” he says, nodding behind him. “You could help them, or find things to make it prettier.” 

Felix blinks. “But Mr. Minho, you’re in the blanket fort and you’re pretty. Why do we need to make it prettier?” 

Chan certainly wishes he had as few inhibitions as his kids sometimes. Minho looks taken aback, then laughs a little, color rising in his cheeks. “Oh,” he says softly. “Thank you, Felix. I’m glad you think so.” 

“I’m pretty, too!” Jisung protests, sticking his head over Minho’s shoulder as Changbin hops down from the chair. 

“Yes you are, Jisung.” Minho is clearly happy for the attention to not be on him for the moment, and pats Jisung’s head before standing to move the chair out of the way. He catches Chan and Seungmin still watching at the edges, though, and inclines his head. “Did you two want to see what we have so far?” 

Seungmin looks up at Chan, a little hesitant, but Chan nods at him encouragingly. “Do you want to get some of your books for the fort?”

“We used the bookshelf from the dining room,” Minho says, slightly apologetic. “Just in case you had any books there.” 

“My Tintin books are on that shelf,” Seungmin says, and wastes no more time in sidling past Minho and into the fort, where the other boys are figuring out how to arrange what looks like Hyunjin and Felix’s entire collection of plushies. 

At Minho’s silent raised eyebrow, Chan explains, “The Tintin comics are his prized possessions, along with his Magic Tree House books.” 

“Of course,” Minho says seriously, coming over to stand next to him. “I’ll keep that in mind if I intend to win him over, too.” 

Chan frowns. “What do you mean?” 

Minho shrugs. “I already know Felix and Hyunjin like me, even if Hyunjin seems a little scared sometimes. But Seungmin’s just an enigma.” 

Chan glances away from the kids to Minho, slightly amused and also touched. “I haven’t even considered whether your kids like me yet.” 

“Oh, they do,” Minho assures him. “Changbin and Jisung especially. But I’ll tell you about it later. For now, you should see our setup.” 

As they duck into the fort through the entrance Changbin had set up between the couch and the wall, Chan nearly crawls into Jisung, but catches his shoulders before he can fall. Jisung barely notices that he’d almost fallen, instead gripping Chan’s shoulders back. 

“Can we plug in the lights, Mr. Chan?” he asks excitedly. “I wanna show Seungminnie!”

Chan nods, but Minho is faster, taking the dangling end of the string lights and guiding it far enough to find a wall socket. Once he plugs it in, the little lights come to life, illuminating the fluffy comforters on the floor and the pillows clustered around the floor in front of both the couches, as well as the blankets used for the walls. In the empty spaces are stuffed animals and more blankets, not exactly neat but definitely cozy. Jisung lets go of Chan to run over to Seungmin, who’s clutching a few volumes to his chest and looking up at the lights, a little dazzled. 

“Now you can read if you’re in here even if the lamp isn’t on!” he says brightly.

Seungmin breaks into a huge smile, and slowly takes one of the books and holds it out to Jisung. Chan would watch them a little longer if his attention hadn’t been directed to Jeongin, who is currently trying to climb onto the coffee table that had been pushed to the corner. 

“Hey now, let’s not climb on that,” he says, making his way over and lifting Jeongin away from it by the armpits. “I don’t want you to fall, okay?” 

Jeongin frowns but obediently goes to Minho’s waiting arms. The other boys are searching for the TV remote, but before Chan can start to help them, his phone goes off in his pocket. 

“Oh, that would be the cookies,” he says. At the mention of cookies, six little pairs of eyes turn toward him. 

“Cookies?” Hyunjin asks.

Chan is already making his way toward the kitchen. “Yep! But they aren’t done quite yet. We have to flatten them a little and let them cool.” 

But the boys are all scrambling up and out of the blanket fort after him, overtaking him as they stampede toward the kitchen, yelling many variations of  _ cookies! _ and nonsense as they crowd in around the oven. 

Chan lets out a piercing whistle, and they all fall silent. 

“I’m going to need all of you to step back from the oven,” he says firmly. “It’s dangerous, and I don’t want any of you getting hurt. Hyunjin, don’t think I don’t see you.” 

Hyunjin, who had been edging toward the oven, stops. “I just wanna see them,” he mumbles. 

“You’ll be able to see once I take the cookies out,” Chan tells him, and Hyunjin finally moves away along with the rest of the kids. “Thank you.”

Chan reaches for the oven mitts and carefully opens the door, taking out the tray. They’re all currently shaped like mounds, and Chan presses the back of the spoon into each one as Jisung and Jeongin peek over the counter to watch. 

“We have to let them cool for a bit,” Minho says, looking to Chan for confirmation. “Do you want to watch a movie for now? Chan can bring them over when they’re ready.” 

Chan is secretly glad they’d put down a blanket on the floor in the living room, because he can easily throw it in the wash after the inevitable crumbs fall. “Remember you were saving our Frozen II DVD to watch with everyone here?” he asks his kids. 

That brightens Hyunjin and Felix up considerably, and Seungmin asks, “The movie with Elsa?”

Chan laughs as Minho pales with dread, and answers, “Yes, Seungmin, the movie with Elsa. You can all watch it now, okay? Make sure to share the blankets.”

The kids don’t need very much convincing after that, moving back into the living room. Only Changbin stays behind for a moment, looking up at Chan. “Can I make popcorn for us?” he asks hopefully. 

Chan figures letting him use the microwave can’t hurt, so he nods. Setting down the spoon for a moment, he opens one of the cupboards and takes a packet of popcorn out, handing it to the child. Changbin eagerly presses the buttons, then stands on his tiptoes to peer into the microwave. Smiling, Chan finishes flattening the cookies and helps Changbin pour the piping hot bag of popcorn into a large plastic bowl.

“I can carry the bowl!” Changbin assures him. He puts his little hands underneath it and lifts the entire thing. 

Chan watches him carefully to make sure he actually won’t have trouble. “Okay, Changbin, big responsibility time. Go give it to your dad so you can all share, okay?”

Changbin nods, peering intently at the bowl to make sure it doesn’t spill. Chan fights the urge to follow him, letting him cross the kitchen into the living room and poke his head into the blanket fort on his own. He smiles to himself as he hears the kids’ cheers and their clamoring to be the first to get some popcorn, and Minho’s voice making sure they share. 

There’s still a few minutes left until the cookies are cool enough to eat, so Chan sends a couple emails as he waits, and then carefully peels them off the baking sheet and onto a plate. Shutting his laptop softly, he takes both it and the plate into the living room, and crawls in just as Kristoff is telling Sven that he’s planning on proposing to Anna. 

But well, maybe his brain does a little projecting because of the scene, and he stumbles with the thought, nearly dropping the plate of cookies. As he rights himself and Minho sends him a curious look, Hyunjin gasps dramatically. 

“Dad, you almost dropped the cookies!” 

It successfully catches all of their attention for a moment, and Minho pauses the movie as they all scramble to grab cookies. Somehow, as they all settle back into place, Chan finds himself next to Minho, both of them sitting on the floor against the couch with the kids crowded in around them on the couch and floor. 

Minho smiles and lifts the blanket so he can spread it over Chan’s legs as well, and Chan rests the plate on his lap so the kids can grab cookies whenever they want. He tries not to think about how his thigh is pressed against Minho’s, or the way that it would take so little effort to rest his head on Minho’s shoulder. Of course, he miserably fails.

This is fine. Everything is fine. He just has to watch Elsa be regal and awesome on screen instead. But halfway through the movie, after all the popcorn and cookies are gone, he belatedly realizes that their shoulders are pressed together, and Jisung has fallen asleep half in his lap, and Changbin is half asleep against his shoulder. Looking around, he realizes that Felix and Jeongin are still completely awake, lying together on their stomachs in front of them, and Seungmin is watching quietly on the couch behind his head.

“Sleepover, I guess?” he asks Minho quietly.

Minho’s hair is illuminated by the fairy lights, and some of them catch in his irises. “You’re sure it won’t be too much trouble?” 

Carefully, Chan digs out his phone, careful not to jostle the boys, and checks the time. “At the very least, stay for dinner,” he suggests hopefully. “We can order in.” 

“Dinner?” Changbin mumbles, starting to stir. From the other side of Minho, Hyunjin peers forward at Chan, taking interest.

“Yeah,” Chan smiles. “I can go—”

“No.” Minho catches his wrist lightly as he’s about to move Jisung. “I’ll do it. Don’t move Jisung or Changbin.”

It feels like an excuse, but Chan doesn’t protest as he sees the look on Minho’s face. Even though the Lee family isn’t intruding in the slightest, he gets the sense that Minho would want to show through his actions how grateful he is for letting them stay. 

“Okay,” he says finally. “Any ideas for what kind of food you want, kids?”

“Curry!” Felix exclaims, but when Chan shushes him gently and points at the sleeping Jisung, he tries again, whispering this time. “Curry!”

“Hot Cheetos,” Seungmin says thoughtfully. 

Chan shakes his head, suppressing a laugh. “That’s not dinner, Seungmin.” 

“Hot Cheetos and rice?” Hyunjin asks earnestly. 

Minho coughs a laugh into his fist. “Not quite there yet,” he says. “Felix said curry, so what about Indian food?” 

They all slowly drift inward to peer at Chan’s laptop for the menu, and he makes sure each of them picks something, feeling a little guilty for waking Jisung up. He’s also a little regretful that he has to readjust the boys so that he can stand and make a call to place his order, but soon he’s back in the warm blankets, Jisung and Changbin now between him and Minho. He’s not sure whether that’s a good thing or not. 

Later, after dinner is eaten and the boys are all tired out, Felix tugs on his hand sleepily asking whether he can go to bed, or if he has to stay up because Changbin, Jisung, and Jeongin are still awake. Chan sends him along after making sure that it’s okay with him that Jisung might borrow some of his pajamas. Hyunjin and Seungmin also agree and follow suit, leaving Chan with the Lee kids. 

“Let’s go find you pajamas, then you can use the bathroom,” he says, gently guiding them toward Felix’s bedroom. Jisung doesn’t put up much of a fuss changing into one of Felix’s pajamas, while Jeongin gets a different pair and Changbin gets one of Hyunjin’s since he’s the biggest of Chan’s kids. 

The boys switch places, and Chan gives them spare toothbrushes before letting Minho take over for a moment, going to talk to his boys for a moment. 

“Felix,” he asks gently, “is it okay if Jisung and Jeongin share your bed with you?”

Felix nods sleepily, already crawling in. “Jisung can hug Sylvester III if I get Berry the Bear.” 

Chan nods, satisfied. “Thank you Felix, that’s very nice of you. Hyunjin, is it okay if Changbin shares with you?” 

“Okay,” Hyunjin nods. “But does that mean Dalai the Llama has to be kicked out?” 

“No,” Chan assures him. “You and Dalai can both share with Changbin.” 

Hyunjin nods more firmly this time, and Chan makes sure they’ve all climbed into their respective beds before the other boys come back, Minho keeping an eye on them. Chan tells them where to go, and once they’re all situated, pushes back Felix’s bangs gently to press a small goodnight kiss to his forehead. 

He’s about to leave to go to the other room when a small voice calls him back. 

“Do I get goodnight kisses too?” Jisung asks, eyes half closed but still hopeful. 

Chan isn’t sure. “Is your dad okay with that?” he asks, glancing toward Minho, who’s leaning against the doorframe. 

“Please, papa?” Jisung asks. 

“Well,” Minho says, and there’s a noticeable pause. “Yeah. That’s okay. For all of them.” 

Jisung beams, and Chan smiles at both Minho and Jisung before brushing aside Jisung’s hair as well, planting a small kiss on his forehead as well. Jeongin makes little grabby hands at him, so he gives the littlest one a kiss as well. 

“Goodnight, all of you,” he whispers as he retreats toward the door. 

Minho gives him an unreadable expression as he shuts the door softly behind them. 

“What?” Chan asks. “Did you change your mind? Was that not okay?” 

Blinking, Minho shakes his head. “No, it really is fine.” He pauses, framing his next words. “They just... are already attached to you.” 

Chan waits for him to elaborate, but he doesn’t as they move toward the next room. After Hyunjin and Seungmin are given kisses, he asks Changbin if he wants one as well, and the oldest nods a little. Chan places a kiss on his head, smoothing his hair down a little. 

“Is Papa here?” he mumbles. “I want him to hug me.” 

“I’m here,” Minho says softly from Chan’s shoulder, and Chan steps aside to let him hug Changbin and rub his back gently. Minho spares Hyunjin some parting headpats as he moves away, and the adults quietly leave the room.

Chan starts in the direction of his own room, trying to calm his heartbeat. “You’re welcome to pajamas, and you can take the bed if you want. I don’t mind sleeping on the couch.” 

Minho frowns. “I’m not going to overstay my welcome  _ and _ take your bed.”

“I’m serious,” Chan insists, opening his closet door. “I still have work to do and generally just stay up late and yeah.” He isn’t sure whether to tell him he’d planned to pull an all-nighter anyway. “I’d rather you be comfortable. Besides, there are still blankets and pillows in the fort.” 

He can’t really read Minho’s expression as he turns back to him, holding out a spare shirt and sleep pants. There does seem to be something on the tip of his tongue, like he’s about to say something, maybe force Chan into bed or say he’ll stay up with him, but he must eventually decide not to. Instead, he takes the clothes with a nod of thanks. 

“You should invest in an air mattress or futon or something,” is all he says as he retreats to the bathroom. 

Chan takes a moment or two to decipher it as he changes his own clothes, smiling to himself. Does that mean they’ll have more sleepovers in the future? He hopes so. 

The house is quiet as he pulls on a hoodie and pads back into the living room, settling on the floor. He’s too physically tired to do more than switch out the blanket on top for a new one, folding it loosely and setting it aside, then puts a pillow between his back and the couch as he opens his laptop again. But his brain is humming with a million thoughts, none of them about work.

If he takes a while to focus, and checks in on the boys and Minho hours later, there’s no one else awake to witness it.

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you enjoyed, and if you did, be sure to leave a comment. Make sure to support social justice, wear your mask, and take care of yourself. See you later for more of this universe.


End file.
